Overachievers Are Overrated

What do you think is most important to the person interviewing you? If you said "a drive to succeed," you may be mistaken.

In a recent poll, employers told us that a driven personality is the least important aspect in a candidate and trustworthiness is at the top.

What matters most to the employers polled? Here are the top three answers:

1. Trustworthiness (28 percent)

According to Don Lunny, author of the book Shoplifting, Security, Curtailing Crime - Inside and Out, dishonest employees account for up to two-thirds of all retail theft and the stores with the greatest proportion of honest employees suffer the least from theft loss. Trustworthy employees save companies money, so be sure to emphasize your trustworthy qualities at your next interview. Your references can help to underscore those qualities.

2. Flexibility to Wear Many Hats (26 percent)

Wearing many hats makes a company run more efficiently. With down-sized staffs, employees have to step into new roles - at least temporarily - in order to get things done. How flexible are you? Willingness to be cross-trained and flexibility to change direction are real assets to a company.

3. Attention to Detail / Quality-oriented (23 percent)

Whether you realize it or not, you have already let a potential employer know about your attention to detail. Did you speak to the job's requirements in the cover letter? Did you spell check your resume? Is your resume formatted properly with bullets, bold headers and easy-to-scan wording?

Before you apply to your next job, make sure that these qualities are on the top of your list.

Margaret Hansen has been writing professionally since receiving a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Maine. She has worked for multiple organizations as a weekly newspaper reporter, a weekly newspaper editor, and in a variety of internal/external marketing communications roles. Her freelance career has focused on writing and editing for print, email and web publications in the employment industry, as well as manuscript editing and resume writing.